The ‘Joker’ Is No Longer Wild

After 19 months on the run from local and North Carolina police officials, Javon "Joker" Capers is behind bars.

Perhaps the most wanted criminal in the local area, Capers was wanted for a series of drug-related murders in such far-flung areas as the Edgemere Houses and in Shelby, North Carolina.

According to NYPD sources, investigators spotted Capers on Knickerbocker Avenue in Brooklyn on Tuesday night. Capers ran into a building at that location and police followed him. They eventually found him hiding in a closet in a bedroom belonging to a nine-year-old girl. He had two guns on his person but was taken after a short scuffle with no shots fired.

Capers was expected to be arraigned last Thursday on charges ranging from attempted murder, assault and weapons charges in connection with two 1999 shootings in Edgemere. North Carolina police officials want him for one murder charge and four charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.

It was unclear at press time whether Capers would face the New York charges first or the more serious charges in North Carolina.

Capers allegedly fled to North Carolina with Kindu Brown, his accomplish in the New York crimes, shortly after the two were connected to the shooting of two men at 440 Beach 54 Street in 1999. Brown was arrested last year.

According to Shelby police, Capers and Brown began a war with local drug dealers for control of the city’s streets.

Capers allegedly returned to New York last year where he was connected to a shooting in the Redfern Houses in Far Rockaway in September of 1999.

"He traveled often between New York and North Carolina," one police official said. "He was not easy to find."

A year ago, dozens of police officers cordoned off a portion of the Edgemere Houses for several hours when it was reported that Capers was seen in an apartment there. When police finally entered the apartment, Capers was not present, but police made a gun arrest of another man who was in the apartment at the time.

Capers was a featured story at least twice on "America’s Most Wanted," and his story was also told on "The System," a production of the Court Channel in New York.